24 abr. 2012

My Review: Safe House (7/10)

¨Remember rule number one: you are responsible
for your house guest. I'm your house guest.¨

I can`t remember ever watching a Denzel
Washington film and being disappointed; he always seems to bring his game or at
least choose interesting projects because I always end up enjoying his movies.
He is one of the best actors of our time and he is really entertaining. Safe
House may not be original or have the best script in the world, but it does
have plenty of thrills and good performances to keep you at the edge of your
seat throughout the movie. It has several similarities with the Bourne
franchise, although not nearly as well crafted. This is a movie that won`t
stick with you long, but it is good enough to entertain you for two hours and
put a smile on your face. I know I can always count on Denzel Washington, and
this movie is also powered by Ryan Reynolds performance as well. Both actors
bring their A game and deliver a solid entertaining film. I don`t know how
relatively unknown Swedish director, Daniel Espinosa, got such talented actors
to star in his film, but he can be thankful for it because this movie probably wouldn’t
have worked without them. The script written by David Guggenheim isn’t original,
several scenes are predictable, but that didn’t ruin the film for me. I still
had a great time with Safe House. I really didn’t like some of the shaky camera
work, but I guess it`s a trend for several directors these days.

Denzel Washington is Tobin Frost, a former CIA
agent who is now one of the most wanted men in the world after going rogue and
selling classified information. He runs into a former MI6 agent in Cape Town,
South Africa who gives him a disk containing what would seem as some very
important information because as soon as he receives it he has dozens of people
shooting at him and running after him. Frost has no other alternative but turn
himself in at the United States consulate office before these men can get to
him. Frost is taken to a Safe House which is guarded by rookie agent Matt
Weston (Ryan Reynolds). Matt`s contact is David Barlow (Brendan Gleeson) who
lets him know that the guest will be arriving soon. When Frost arrives along
with the CIA team they are ambushed by the same men that were after him before,
and Matt has no other choice but to escape with Frost before these guys get to him.
Matt has to deal with protecting Frost while at the same time not allowing him
to escape and also figuring out who he can trust in the CIA agent because apparently
someone is trying to get to them. Matt is forced into having to protect the
enemy, but he will soon find out that the enemy could also come from within.

Safe House will probably be one more of those
movies you will forget all about because it lacks originality and has nothing
memorable about them, but I guarantee you will be entertained during two solid
hours thanks to some good performances from Washington and Reynolds. There are
also some interesting secondary actors like Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga,
Ruben Blades, Robert Patrick, and Sam Shepard who bring their talents to the
table, but the truth of the matter is that the success of the film relies
entirely on Reynolds and Washington who have proven yet again to be great and entertaining
actors. These guys are doing what they do best: action thrillers and despite
not having remarkable material to work with they still manage to entertain and
keep us at the edge of our seats. Safe House is an enjoyable film, but just
don`t expect much more than that. Not among Washington`s best work, but even
mediocre Washington can carry a movie.